by Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

by Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY

Watch this ad, and you may never look at an Olympic luge event in quite the same way.

The ad, which has gone viral, shows two male lugers preparing to push their craft down the track. The two men methodically thrust band and forth â?? back and forth â?? in what looks like a sexually suggestive way. Then, this message appears on the screen: "The Games have always been a little gay. Let's fight to keep them that way."

This controversial ad comes courtesy of a tiny advocacy group called The Canadian Institute of Diversity and Inclusion.

Its founder, Michael Bach, says he's just trying to get a message of inclusion across to Russia -- which has a law making it illegal to promote non-traditional relationships. "In a fun way, we wanted to focus the world's attention on this issue," says Bach.

With the Winter Olympic Games under way in Sochi, Russia, everything from minuscule advocacy groups like this to mammoth Olympic sponsors are using The Winter Games to draw attention to their product, cause or brand message. Olympic sponsors spend $100 million just for the rights to use the Olympic rings over a cycle of summer and winter games. But those without mega-budgets are relying upon creativity and social media to draw attention.

This ad -- which already has had more than 2 million YouTube views in less than a handful of days -- hits all the right social media buttons, says Peter Madden, CEO of the corporate branding specialty firm, AgileCat. The ad "takes advantage of a topic that is getting more traction than any single athlete within the Games themselves," says Madden. Though some people are bound to take offense at the ad, he says, that's how and why it will spread virally.

The attention is a PR windfall for this one-year-old, Toronto-based organization that has all of 12 employees. The two actors in the spot are employees of the group and it was done at no charge by the Toronto agency Rethink. The spot wasn't actually shot on a luge course, but at a park in Toronto. The luge course affects were added with computer graphics.

While the issue of discrimination against LGBT people is very serious, perhaps the best way to draw consumer attention to the issue is with a smile, says Bach. "Life is far to serious," he says. "If we can laugh a little, we can make change."

And now, he says, is the perfect moment for his group to get out the message.

"The Olympics has put a spotlight on this issue," he says."If not for The Games, we wouldn't be having this discussion."